Effects of frequent intranasal administration of adjuvant-combined influenza vaccine on the protection against virus infection

In previous papers, we have shown that Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin B subunit, supplemented with a trace amount of the holotoxin (LTB*) could be used as a potent adjuvant for a nasal influenza HA (haemagglutinin) vaccine in humans. The present study was designed to determine whether the effectiveness of a combined LTB*-HA vaccine could be limited by preexisting immunity to LTB and how many times the adjuvant-combined vaccine could be administered intranasally without reducing its protective efficacy in BALB/c, C3H and B10 mice. The magnitude of both nasal and serum Ab responses to HA vaccine was correlated with the degree of protection against virus infection. Higher doses of LTB*-combined vaccine were required for inducing high enough levels of anti-HA Ab responses to provide complete protection in low responder mice. Repeated pretreatments with LTB* alone (more than six times), which provided high levels of preexisting Abs to LTB, inhibited the induction of anti-HA Ab responses and reduced the protective efficacy of the adjuvant-combined vaccine. However, the LTB*-combined vaccine could be given repeatedly (about ten times) to mice without reducing the effectiveness of the adjuvant-combined vaccine. These results suggest that the LTB*-combined nasal influenza vaccine can be given to humans once every few years when an epidemic of influenza may occur.